The Hole Picture Safaris - Yellowstone Tours

The Hole Picture Safaris are more than just a wildlife safari company; we also do national park tours of Yellowstone and Grand Teton Parks. We do photography tours that cater to photographers and get them to the pretty spots when the light is good or to where the wildlife is active. Our Wildlife Safaris strive to show you as much of Yellowstone and Grand Tetons‚ megafana as possible in the allotted amount of time. Custom tours are available for those who have a different idea of what they want to see or do, ideas that coalesce between the minds of the tour contractee and tour contractor.


Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is the last remaining large, nearly intact ecosystem in the northern temperate zone of the Earth and is only partly located in Yellowstone National Park. The Greater Yellow Ecosystem is one of the world's foremost natural laboratories in landscape ecology and geology and is a world-renowned recreational site The Greater Yellowstone Region is a huge place, Yellowstone Park is 2.2 million acres but its whole eco-system is about 10 million acres, much of it drop dead beautiful and much of it deserves to be seen as much as Grand Teton and Yellowstone Parks.

Our region is gifted with an embarrassment of riches scenic of splendor accented with a plethora of wildlife. Hole Picture Safaris will show you where to find what you hope for as well as many things you never knew of.

All tours provide natural resource information including information about our wolves, grizzly bears, mountain goats, black bears, mule deer, elk, bison etc. We also provide information about our mountains, lakes, rivers, trout streams, National Forests and National Parks. Our natural history orations are not to be outdone by our tales of human history.

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The Hole Picture - Photography

The Hole Picture got its name because I do most of my photography in and around Jackson Hole Wyoming, hence the name.

To buy photographic prints the Gallery Print button will take you to my ImageKind Storefront my purveyor can handle sales of simple prints you can frame yourself to massive framed and glazed pieces of art suitable for professional buildings or elegant homes. Imagekind makes custom framing easy. They offer over 160 frames and 140 mats from the best manufacturers in the world. Whether it is a simple black frame, a gilded silver delight or a rustic looking cherry, you can find something to make your gallery print pop and ImageKind provides real-time digital representations complete with what it will look like on your wall.

I lead Photo Safaris around the Greater Yellowstone Region Follow the Photo Safari Link too learn more about them.

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About America The Beautiful and Purple Mountains Majesty

Native Wisdom?

The old Cherokee chief sat in his reservation hut

 smoking the ceremonial pipe and eyeing the two US

 government officials sent to interview him.

"Chief Two Eagles," one official began, "you have

 observed the white man for many generations, you have

 seen his wars and his products, you have seen all his

progress and all his problems."

 The chief nodded.

The official continued, "Considering recent events, in

 your opinion where has the white man gone wrong?"

The chief stared at the government officials for over

 a minute, and then calmly replied:

 "When white man found this land Indians were running

it. No taxes. No debt. Plenty buffalo. Plenty

 beaver. Women did most of the work. Medicine man

 free. Indian men hunted and fished all the time."

The chief smiled and added quietly, "White man dumb

 enough to think he could improve system like that."

All About 1988 Yellowstone Fires

Compiled, plegerized and pseudo authorized by Daryl L. Hunter


A lodgepole seedling has the opportunity to sprout because the seeds were released by fire
Fire is good; Yellowstone has long been shaped by fire and not just the cool, creeping ground fires often described as "good" for grass production. The natural history of fire in the park includes large-scale conflagrations sweeping across the park's vast volcanic plateaus, hot, wind-driven fires torching up the trunks to the crowns of the pine and fir trees at several hundred-year intervals. It is supposed to be this way. During the first half of the twentieth century, most people, forest managers included considered forest fires to be destructive and without positive value. For this reason, Yellowstone and throughout the National Park Service had a policy of putting out all fires on national interest wildlands lands. In the second half of the century, forest managers of national parks and forests began to understand the importance of periodic wildland fires. With the help of Smokey the Bear most of America was in consensus that all wildfires were bad. Most Americans steeped in Smokey the Bear's "Only you can prevent forest fires!" mantra, the very thought that forest fires might have a positive side seemed preposterous. We all learned this as children and it is damned hard to change, as our indoctrination to this policy was total. Unfortunately man’s past practice of total forest fire suppression has changed the forest into a much shadier forest floor habitat causing heavy fuel accumulation on the forest floor resulting in the very hot forest fires we see lately that result in maximum loss of the forest. The Natural Burn Policy The National Park Service interprets its mission as letting natural processes play out unimpeded by man. Biologists and park managers have defined its policy: "We allow a park that has documented the role of fire as a natural part of the ecosystem, and that has an approved fire-management plan specifying the prescriptions under which natural fires may burn, to manage each fire on an individual basis."

The "prescribed-fire" approach, which allows fires to burn under certain previously defined conditions called "prescriptions"), has evolved as federal policy since the 1970s, and it was just a matter of time before a prescribed fire consumed some wildland dear to the public's heart. And in a way, it's appropriate, because Yellowstone has both the largest area and one of the most ecologically progressive fire-management plans of any parcel of public land in the contiguous United States.

What has become known as the “D” words: death, defoliation, demise, desolation, destruction, and devastation, are often used to character assassinate the fires that actually are an integral part of the life cycle of the park and the terms and references make biologists with knowledge of biological fire science shutter because of the ignorance peddling.--------------------------------> Rest of Essay

Christmas Present

By Daryl L. Hunter
Growing up as a child in America, as all children, I loved the Christmas season, the Christmas tree, lights, lawn decorations, candy, mistletoe, cookies, Santa Claus, elves, reindeer and most of all presents, it was a magical time of year.


It sure was a surprise at age 12 when I found out that Christ was the root word in Christmas, my secular home had never pointed out the connection. Today I remain more secular than anything else and I question myself, why do I get so flipping angry when ACLU types are trying to remove all vestiges of Christmas from the public square when I am not religious.


The answer must be, the homogenization of Christmas is just another symptom of the dismemberment of traditional American Culture, another victim of the Culture War, call me old fashioned but I liked the America of Christmas past, the time of the singular Scrooge. Today Christmas to me is a lot less about presents and more about turkey, tom and jerrys with friends, family and tradition, but embarrassingly with only a perfunctory explanation and observation of the meaning of Christmas to the kids.


When Christmas retailers insult the patrons of their biggest season by removing the Christmas greeting it makes me want to not buy, when I was told that a member of the Start Bus Board forbade the drivers from displaying the Merry Christmas programmed into their electric signs I was outraged, When Christmas trees became holliday trees I was apoplectic.


I have a hunch that the ACLU and their minions are offending more than just their sworn enemies, the Christian right. If their goal is "not to offend" it is a fool's errand as it is an impossible task because to accommodate the 15% of Americans who are not Christian you have a remaining 85% at risk of being offended as an unintended consequence. If their goal is to offend, they have aspired to a goal they have a gift for achieving.


My hope is my 8 and 11 year olds find the magic in Christmas that I had the privilege to enjoy as a child; I hope it is still possible in this increasingly divisive and hostile social climate. As for me and many others I suppose, I have had a giant intangible stolen from me by the secular leftists of the ACLU and their Christophobe allies and my Christmas's will never be the same.


All the people of the western world are going to have a Christmas on 12-25 of every year, most will have a day off from work whether they celebrate Christmas or not. It stands to reason that a Muslim, Jew or atheist would celebrate an extra day off so merry Christmas to you all.


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I originally wrote this in 2006 for a Jackson Hole newspaper "Planet Jackson Hole" but it is a Christmas tradition of mine to repost it every year here on my blog.

Maybe with some additions ~

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

General Thanksgiving By the PRESIDENT 10/3/1789

General Thanksgiving
By the PRESIDENT
of the United States of America
A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

AND ALSO, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

George Washington

Leaping Black Wolf, Lamar Valley

Leaping Black Wolf, Lamar Valley
Originally uploaded by Daryl L. Hunter - The Hole Picture

Leaping Black Wolf hits 10,000 views.

Make Mine Freedom (1948)

Billy Graham's Prayer For Our Country

THIS MAN SURE HAS A GOOD VIEW OF WHAT'S HAPPENING TO OUR COUNTRY!

'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!'

Congressman Mike Rogers' opening statement on Health Care reform in Washington D.C.

Building Stonehenge - This Man can Move Anything

Bozeman Montana's Hyalite Canyon

Hyalite Canyon is a popular playground for Montana State University and other Bozeman locals and one visit the Hyalite Canyon will demonstrate why. Hyalite Canyon is exceptional to Montana's recreational areas in its accessibility, enjoyment for all ages and capabilities, and in its glaciated carved valley. The canyon is stunning in its beauty and splendor, a great getaway for all to enjoy.

Hyalite reservoir is the centerpiece and hub for canyon activities and National Forest Campgrounds. Built in the 1940's the reservoir has a hold capacity of 8,000 acre-feet of water. Hyalite Reservoir is used for drinking water for the city of Bozeman and to irrigate the Gallatin Valley. Its waters offer great trout fishing spots and gorgeous vantage points for photographing its majestic mountains.

10,000-foot mountain peaks, creeks, streams, lakes and a plethora of waterfalls, surround the Hyalite Drainage Recreational Area. The hikes to Blackmore Lake, Palisade Falls, Emerald and Heather Lakes the trail to Hyalite Lake all lie in the Hyalite Canyon.

Rest of Article

Repercussions Of A Myopic World

By Daryl L. Hunter

It's a dog eat dog world, and under the thin veneer of civility western society has cultivated during the last few centuries. Our human/animal nature under the surface remains as historically brutal as it has been since the beginning of time. The bold dominate, the meek subordinate, i.e., Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Poll Pot. Those that accept a submissive position are dominated or are vanquished. Those that accept a submissive position reap the rewards of their fear, apathy, and inaction.

The Twentieth Century created a new kind of world power, the United States of America. America fought wars and after winning these wars America rebuilt the vanquished countries (France, Germany, Japan, etc.) and returned colonies to their prewar leaders without taking any conquered land and bootie for itself (i.e. returning Viet Nam to France a big mistake!)

The United States and other advanced nations recognize that countries can create more wealth by trading with other countries than by conquering and crippling their ability to produce trade goods. All over the world we give foreign aid not solely because we are altruistically benevolent, our purposeful benevolence has one foot in empathy and the other in a dynamic capitalism that when we give aid with the appropriate strings attached we lift them out of third world status and turn them into trading partners, a win for both parties.

Today's divisive politics in America has crippled our ability---------------------------------------> Rest of Article

Living a richer life without any money

By Daryl L. Hunter

Since purchasing my first camera, I have been living a visual feast that has cost me a real estate career in a lucrative Southern California market. My scenery seemed to always be just over the next hill somewhere, cityscapes just were not my kind of inspiration, and I soon tired of local beach sunsets.

So it wasn't long before I was traveling farther a field, weekend trips to Big Sur, Lake Arrowhead, Yosemite, and yes, a three-day driving marathon to the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park. I decided that my weekends just were not long enough. I would just have to take more time off work, and then I could make it to Tahoe, the costal redwoods, and the Oregon coast.

All that driving wore out my car; it must be time to move to a prettier place. Then the moving began. First to the local mountains, Big Bear Lake, that was pretty nice for a while, and then Lake Tahoe sounded like a good idea. While living there I read about Fred Joy, a photographer in Jackson Hole, Wyoming who was making a real good living from a photo gallery he had there, so I decided to go see it. The gallery was excellent, but Jackson Hole was awesome! Not only did it have outstanding mountains and lakes, it had wildlife everywhere, and I'm not talking about The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. 8,000 elk on the National Elk Refuge outside of town, big horn sheep on the mountain tops, moose up the side canyons, deer on the buttes, antelope on the flats, bears hiding in the trees, buffalo wandering from here to there, and more nature photographers than you could shake a stick at. But I moved there anyway.

Being a wander lusting, vagabond photographer wasn't conducive to a real estate career so, out of hunger, I turned to--------------> Rest of Article

Hunting Dubois Wyoming's Absaroka and Wind River Mountains

The Greater Yellowstone region offers some of the best big game hunting anywhere. Outside of Jackson Hole Wyoming is the National Elk Refuge where 6 to 10 thousand Elk spend their winters, south of Dubois WY is the largest herd of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Moose can be found in most in most river bottom and a few mountain tops and everywhere in between, and there are tens of thousands of Mule Deer throughout the region.

Big Game Animals of the Greater Yellowstone Region More

Love Is In The Air

Elephant Seals enjoy a nice breeding under the California Sun.

Hunting Mule Deer, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming

Mule deer can be found throughout the entire western United States, including the deserts of the American Southwest, Mule deer have large ears that move constantly and independently, as do mules, hence the name, "Mule Deer." This stocky deer has sturdy legs and is 4 to 6-1/2 feet in length and 3 to 3-1/2 feet high at the shoulder. Most Mule deer are brown or gray in color with a small white rump patch and a small, black-tipped tail. Mule deer their fawns have white spots at birth. Buck deer have antlers that start growth in spring and are shed around December, these antlers are high and branch forward and reach a spread up to 4 feet in width bucks are larger than does. The life span of a mule deer in the wild is 10 years, but mule deer have lived for up to 25 years in captivity.

Mule deer can thrive nearly anyplace; their habitats include woodland chaparral, Sonoran desert, semi-desert, shrub woodland, Great Plains grasslands, shrub land forest, sagebrush steppe, and boreal forest. Mule deer are remarkably adaptable, of at least sixty types of habitat west of the 100th meridian in the United States, all but two or three are or once were home to mule Deer.

Mountain mule deer seasonally migrate from the higher elevations of the sub-alpine forests they inhabit during summer to lower elevations of the mountain valleys and desert lowlands. Deer prefer rocky windswept buttes where it is easier for them to find food during the winter and that provide escape from predators as needed. The mule deer of the arid southwest may migrate in response to rainfall patterns and a mule deers large feet have evolved to enable them to dig for water as much as two feet deep. Mule deer tend to confine their daily movements to their home ranges. Most mule deer use the same winter and summer home ranges in consecutive years-------------------------------> more

Hunting Elk of the Yellowstone Region

Elk were named by the early settlers, but some people prefer to call it by the Shawnee name wapiti (WAA-pi-tea) meaning "white rump." The name "elk" is a bit confusing because in Europe, moose are called "elk." and the European "red deer" is the same as the North American elk, which muddies the water even further. Evidently the same naming scheme that called for the American bison to be called a buffalo.

Elk were valued by the early settlers and Native Americans as a valuable food source, hides and fur for clothing, and antlers for utensils and trophies. Today elk are economically valuable for hunting and tourism they bring to the mountains of the west.

At the turn of the century, commercial game hunters, hired riflemen and subsistence hunters had killed off most of the elk in the west. In1910, the U.S. Forest Service estimated that fewer than 1,000 elk remained in Colorado. A 1918 survey of Forest Service lands in Idaho showed only 610 elk remained. Places where elk had been protected, these prolific animals rebounded quickly. The winters of 1897, 1909, 1911 and 1917 all coinciding with the loss of their traditional wintering grounds to cattle ranching were also very tough on them. About 10,000 elk starved in Jackson Hole during the winter of 1897, a decade before Jackson Hole became the home of the National Elk Refuge.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> More

Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine

From the 1961 Operation Coffee Cup Campaign against Socialized Medicine as proposed by the Democrats, then a private citizen Ronald Reagan Speaks out against socialized medicine.

We should have elected him president in 1960!

Great Horned Owl Chicks

Owl nest and Great Horned Owl Chicks hatched in Jackson Hole Wyoming.

Mother Moose Nurses Calf

A cow moose badly injured from wolf or grizzly attack in Yellowstone mothers her calf she delivered right after the attack like there is nothing wrong.

George Carlin - Saving the Planet

Tom Rush - Remember Song

Subject: Derivative markets, an understandable explanation

by e-mail lore:

Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit . In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers - most of whom are unemployed alcoholics - to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).

Word gets around about Heidi's drink now pay later marketing strategy and as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar and soon she has the largest sale volume for any bar in Detroit .

By providing her customers' freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Her sales volume increases massively.

A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit. He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics as collateral. At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS.

These securities are then traded on security markets worldwide. Naive investors don't really understand the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, their prices continuously climb, and the securities become the top-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses.

One day, although the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the bank (subsequently fired due his negativity), decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's. Heidi demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Therefore, Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations and claims bankruptcy.

DRINKBOND and ALKIBOND drop in price by 90%. PUKEBOND performs better, stabilizing in price after dropping by 80 %. The decreased bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans.

The suppliers of Heidi's bar, having granted her generous payment extensions and having invested in the securities are faced with writing off her debt and losing over 80% on her bonds. Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 50 workers.

The bank and brokerage houses are saved by the Government following dramatic round-the-clock negotiations by leaders from both political parties. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by a tax levied on employed middle-class non-drinkers.

Finally an explanation you can understand!